Friday, January 15, 2010

I think I've got this work deadline licked, and I'm slowly emerging from a scholarly mumbo-jumbo haze. Wow, has it ever colored my most recent blog posts. You're all probably wondering how I could write anything a teenager would want to read, based on the shift in voice here.

All I can say is be careful what you read while you're writing. You can only read so much on Deleuze and his ilk without it seriously warping your mind. But that's what I get paid for: tackling the crazy run-ons with three sets of em dashes, colons and quotes within quotes. I can spot MLA style transgressions at 50 paces. And I write really nice rejection letters.

As a reward for my hard work, I'm going to start writing something fun this weekend, something I've never tried before. And just in time for Courtney Reese's "Love at first sight blogfest"! (If you haven't signed up yet, go do it now!) Donna at First Novels Club has piqued my interest in trying out male POV. I might try a tense shift, too, from present (my usual) to past.

Who's with me? Shall we make the blogfest more fun by adding personal challenges? Anyone want to try a new POV? How about a new genre?

Addendum: Kristi Faith is playing Mad Libs today. If you need a laugh, go see what she did with my list of random words.

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comments:

Yes! I challenged myself with Frankie's No Kiss Blogfest and wrote in present tense for the first time in my life. It was soooooo fun!! I'll have to think about what new challenge to go for with the Love at First site fest :-)

I love this idea!! Although I've written from both male and female POV. I tend to write in present tense, so perhaps I'll give past tense a try. But that hardly seems sporting. Hmmm...I'll have to think of something.

Carol: Maybe a historic rather than contemporary character? Or...how about A new SF race of beings? Tell us about love on Argonath Plixar! (Yes, I just made that up.) I think you are just the creative soul to pull that off.

Oh, dear. You didn't just issue a challenge, did you? You know what happens when you do that to me, right? The last challenge you gave me ended up as a 10,000-word story about gender confusion, date rape, and tequila, remember.

Oh, fine. I'll write from female POV. What tense? I've used past and present thus far. Future? Is that even possible? I'll leave it up to you. :)

Shannon: I have far more ideas than the time or interest in writing them, so it's fun to share. I don't *mean* to torture Simon, but he digs in to hard assignments so well and always knocks my socks off.

Give us a YA scene set in a HS theatre (I believe this is an environment you know). The heroine is auditioning for a play (you pick the play) and must read with a boy she *thinks* she knows, but his performance during the audition changes her opinion, and she is smitten.

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City dweller, word nerd, Indie film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile. Professor's wife and mom to an arty teen. Follower of the Good Shepherd, who is faithful when we are faithless. My poetry and fiction explore the places where heart and soul are tested and growing up truly begins.

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